Montreal, Canada - Airbus will invest up to 1 billion euros ($1.08 billion) this year in its A220 program. Earlier this month, the European planemaker bought Bombardier's remaining stake in the program and raised its share to 75% from 50.1%.
With this deal, Canadian manufacturer exited the civil aviation industry and bolstered the European planemaker’s position in its ongoing competition with U.S. rival Boeing. The A220, previously known as the CSeries, is a 110-130 seater aircraft, a little smaller than Airbus’s mainstay A320 jet.
Airbus has been ramping up production of the A220 towards its maximum monthly capacity rate of 10 at its facility in Mirabel and to a monthly rate of four in Mobile, Alabama, targets it hopes to reach by the middle of this decade.
Production in the United States has become more important for Airbus since the U.S. government slapped tariffs on jets made in Europe for purchase by U.S. airlines following a years-long tariff dispute.